With the
growing needs arising from the rapid development of international postal
relations, the Universal Postal Union (UPU)
was established on 7 July 1875 to promote the organization and improvement of
world postal services in a spirit of international cooperation. The
Universal Postal Union Congress is held every five years as the supreme
authority of the UPU and brings together diplomats and postal operators from
member countries.

Souvenir folder distributed by
the Japanese Delegation at the Conference

Souvenir folder distributed by
the Swiss Delegation at the Conference

The
period from 1920 to 1927 was a period of incipient development for air
transport. Postal administrations and airlines were still in the dark as to its
future possibilities for international airmail. Air services were considered as
“extraordinary” ground services under the UPU General Convention governing all
international mail.
The determination of the rates was left to the administrations using it.

At the
Stockholm Ordinary Congress of UPU in
1924 (8th Congress),
the possibility of using the airplane for the transportation of mail gained
momentum. Although the latter agreement had been in existence for only one
year, a need for modification was recognized to consider unifying airmail
surtaxes demanded of the public and to simplify the method of remunerating the
air transport companies.

USSR
– 1927

1st
International Aero-

Postal
Conference

As the
signatory governments were bound by a five-year agreement during which time
amendments to the Convention were practically impossible to obtain and, as the
use of air transport had become sufficiently widespread, the Post Office of the
USSR took
the step in March 1927 of formally proposing a special Administrative
Conference of UPU (First International Air Post
Congress) for the consideration of the technical question of airmail
provisions.

Called at
the suggestion from the Air Transport Committee of the International Chamber of
Commerce (Chambre de Commerce Internationale, CCI) and
the official initiative of the Postal Office of the USSR,
this Conference met in the building of the Upper Chamber (Hall of Senat) at The
Hague, Netherlands, from 1 to 10 September 1927; it was attended
by seventy-nine representatives of thirty-five members of the UPU;
the large participation indicated an awareness of the importance which airmail
would have.

This
Conference resulted in an agreement that established the airline companies as
officially recognized carriers of mail at the maximum remuneration of 6 postal
gold francs per metric ton-kilogram. It also initiated some significant rules
and regulations concerning the acceptance and rapid delivery of airmail by the
signatory powers, the expeditious handling of airmail by countries without air
services, and the basis of accounting procedures for international airmail.
Another provision agreed upon was that the PAR AVION labels
should have a blue colour and, when the
mail did not actually travel by air, such labels or annotations should be
crossed out.

The monetary unit employed for all purposes of the UPU machinery
was the “Postal Gold Franc” defined by article 31 of the UPU Convention at
that time. This is a special unit of currency not employed for any other
purpose. The postal gold franc was the equivalent of the French (or Swiss)
franc that was in existence prior to World War I and was worth 0.193 United
States dollars of the same vintage. Of course, devaluations of virtually all
currencies since that time had changed the original equivalents, so that the
quotation of one gold franc per ton-kilometre for transportation charges had
the equivalent of 0.327 after WWII.

9th
UPU Congress

London - 1929

The The
Hague Conference of 1927 laid down the first airmail provisions, an event of
historic importance in view of the fantastic development of that means of
transportation in the international post. The UPU
London Congress adopted in 1929 with minor changes the Air Mail Regulations
that were established by this Conference. These
provisions set the general pattern for international airmail arrangements up to
the UPU Congress of Paris in 1947.

Later, more restricted meetings of countries directly concerned
took place in Europe, with the participation of aeronautical authorities (e.g.
the European Airmail Conferences held in Brussels, October 1930 and June 1938).
The primary concern of these meetings was to take advantage of the speed
provided by air transport for the benefit of the mail service between the
principal cities.

During the
Airmail Conference, a special postmark was used to commemorate this occasion
and, in the Netherlands, four privately produced postcards were issued to the
participants.

Special
postmark issued to commemorate this Conference, reads as follows: